Over the past few weeks, our class has been working on lessons made from Etoys including small activities and pictures to educate students around the world about types of jobs. My assignment is media-related jobs, including journalists, writers, reporters, editors, camera operators, and many more. This project has made me very aware of the ways in which job opportunities here in America are vastly different from those around the globe, and even the jobs which are available both here and abroad are often different or paid differently. I’ve had a great time learning about this and trying to make it accessible to everyone, at the same time developing my own skills for teaching and presenting information concisely and attractively.

In our most recent OLPC classes, we have continued to work on our Etoys career lessons. We are designing these lessons to be both informative and interactive in order to teach others about different careers in exciting and engaging ways. My lesson focuses on various careers in the healthcare industry, such as dentists, nurses, and psychologists. This is my second year designing lessons in OLPC, so I have been able to challenge myself by creating more difficult animations, and I learn more about what Etoys is capable of each day. My favorite page to design so far has been the dentist game (pictured below), in which the student is told to clean the teeth in the mouth and get rid of the cavities. It could be the most complicated piece of programming that I have attempted, but I have enjoyed the challenge. So far, I have only seen the progress of my book and the books of others in my class, so I can’t wait to see the final project when all of our lessons are put together. I know that seeing all that we have accomplished will be very rewarding, especially due to the fact that students all over the world will be able to enjoy and learn from them!

Right now, in class, we are working on our lessons. The lessons are small descriptions of careers and along with some games. We are creating them so kids can learn what each job does and help them figure out what they want to be. I really enjoy drawing the pictures and coding the games. This is always my favorite part. I’ve learned some new techniques from Etoys when coding the games. Coding the games took a while, but I got the hang of it. Now the coding is fun and easy. I’m actually almost finished with my lesson. I also attached a picture of one of the games I made. Here, in my lesson on working in the food industry, you are supposed to drag the ingredients to the green bowl and when that is done then a cake pops up. I have only two games left to finish!